1. Field of the Invention
A fruit harvester comprising a plurality of oscillating fruit removal heads to selectively engage and vibrate the periphery of selected fruit-bearing sections of a fruit tree canopy thereby causing the fruit to break away from the fruit tree canopy.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Different approaches have been made in recent years to develop a harvesting machine that will rapidly and efficiently remove fruit from a tree without undue damage to the tree or immature fruit and blooms on the tree. Unfortunately no approach has been entirely successful. While it has appeared that shaking the tree is the most natural method, apparatus entering the tree to shake it at the trunk is known to cause damage to the root system of the tree, with possible loss of tree longevity and a reduction of fruit bearing. Other methods of trying to "auger" the fruit off the branches have broken limbs and caused excessive leaf damage/removal, as well as lost immature fruit and blossoms. "Shiners", or ripe fruit remaining on the tree, appear to be excessive and must be picked by hand.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,421,146 teaches a mechanical fruit harvester including a plurality of flexible probes which extend into the foliage of the tree. Each probe has retractable fingers for separating the fruit from the stem.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,161,358 shows a mechanical citrus apparatus comprising finger assemblies with tension producing and tension reducing abilities. As arms of the apparatus enter through limbs and foliage into the tree, the fingers depress, then reposition to correct angle for picking fruit. As the apparatus is withdrawn from the tree, the fingers engage stems of fruit bringing fruit up into intersection of the arm and the finger whereby pressure of the finger against stem causes separation of fruit from stem.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,377,064 comprises a rod press fruit harvester having a plurality of fruit removing rods combined with a mechanism for allowing movement of the harvester through a fruiting canopy without damage to limbs and branches of the tree.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,705,486 teaches a bush berry harvester having a carriage movable along the row and carrying a pair of tine grids movable in unison up and down to a selected elevation and movable in unison transversely toward and away from the bushes and also oscillatable in opposite phase in a fore and aft direction at variable amplitude and frequency to dislodge berries onto a conveyor leading to a berry cooler on the carriage.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,864,899 shows a fruit picking panel with a plurality of parallel disposed rotating spindles and a plurality of intermingled parallel disposed stationary spindles for penetrating the branches of a fruit-bearing tree. The rotating spindles have single-lobed cam-like elements intermediate the ends thereof to provide maximum openings for permitting easy penetration of the panel of spindles in and around the branches and the hanging fruit for a minimum of physical damage thereto and thereafter the rotation of the spindles carrying the cams causes the fruit to be gently squeezed between adjacent cams or between a cam and a stationary spindle to spin the fruit free of its attachment to the tree.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,222,219 relates to a fruit picking device similar to the device disclosed in '899.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,948,027 shows a mechanized harvester for tree-borne crops including a plurality of crop harvesting heads rotatably mounted on the end of an extendible boom. The boom, in turn, is rotatably mounted on a tractor.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,208,860 comprises a crop harvesting apparatus having a plurality of rotatable crop-severing rods of generally circular cross section extending from a support for insertion into crop-bearing foliage with the crop-securing rod longitudinal axes substantially parallel to the direction of thrust. The rods are formed of a rigid, flexible material and are rotated at speeds sufficient to cause the rods to flex to rotate orbitally about the stationary positions of their longitudinal axes. In a second embodiment, the crop-severing rods have frictional surfaces on at least the longitudinal outer portions thereof.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,163,355 teaches a crop harvesting apparatus for harvesting tree-borne crops including a plurality of crop-severing rods extending from a planar support member from which the rods are mounted for rotation. The rotating rods are thrust lengthwise into a crop-bearing plant and rotated, causing the crop-contacting surface portions to rotate orbitally to contact the crops to sever them from the plant. The crop-securing rods are mounted for orbital rotation on the outer cylindrical surface of a rotating cylinder, and in another embodiment the crop-severing rods extend from an end surface of a rotating cylinder, with the crop-severing rod longitudinal axis offset from the rotating cylinder longitudinal axis. In another embodiment, rigid, flexible crop-severing rods flex while rotating to rotate orbitally about the longitudinal axis of their mounting members.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,601,962 shows an attachment for a fruit harvester incorporating a plurality of rotary elements oriented in substantially vertical alignment with each rotary element including an offset beater in the form of a bar or tine which orbits about a rotational axis in a manner to engage fruit adjacent its connection with the stem for dislodging the fruit from the stem and causing the dislodged fruit to move in an outward trajectory in relation to the canopy of the tree toward the fruit harvester which serves as a device for catching and collecting the fruit.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,163,356 is an additional example of the fruit picking prior art. In contrast, the subject invention is configured to approximate the motion applied by the "hand picker". With a majority of the fruit growing in the outside three foot perimeter of the tree, the application of oscillating heads with extended probes or wands in the tree has been applied. As the fruit falls, it is collected and transferred to a "goat" (fruit collecting bin truck) by a simple inclined conveyor.